The Chaos Pantheon: The Attack of Dissenters
by CompleteIndie
Summary: Four pantheons. Four weeks. Four tests. Four vessels. In this culmination of the Riordan Universe, a creation — or rather, creator — is breaking free, and on the verge of reshaping reality in whatever image he sees fit. (Spoilers for PJO, HoO, MCGA, and KC. AU!ToA never happened.)
1. Chapter 1 - Percy

The following is a transcript of a digital recording. In certain places, the audio quality was poor, so some words and phrases represent the author's best guesses. Background noises such as scuffling, hitting, and cursing by the four different speakers have not been transcribed. The author cannot verify they are telling the truth. It would, however, explain the sheer madness that has been occurring in recent times.

* * *

[Annabeth? Is this stupid thing on? No, it's not smoking, wise girl! The black light, why did your dad make it a black light? Black light, okay. ...How should I start?]

My name is Percy Jackson. You, uh, might've read my memoirs. [That sounded stupid, I'm doing it my way!]

My name is Percy Jackson, I'm a demigod that saved the entire world. A few times, I might add. [Better.]

Have I ever told you how much being a demigod sucks? It sucks. A lot. Three reasons why. The first reason? You always — and I mean ALWAYS get interrupted.

Look at the day this whole... kerfuffle, that's a fun word, kerfuffle. Look at the day this whole kerfuffle started. Me and Annabeth were just... hanging out, when we got interrupted by screams.

Wait, I should get you up to speed. Ever since the defeat of Gaea, a lot has happened. Turns out, Egyptian gods are a thing. No demigods though, they don't seem to approve of that. Um... Annabeth has a cousin who died and saved the world, in that order. Um... Apollo stopped by for a visit, nearly got sent down to Earth power-stripped, that would've been funny. Barring a few near-world-ending events though, not much. Life's boring. [Think the sarcasm is audible? I know it's been transcribed, wise girl.]

So, uh, yeah. Me and Annabeth were interrupted. After a few seconds to get ready again, we stepped out of the otherwise empty Poseidon cabin and stepped out, to see... strange weather.

If you couldn't remember, Camp Half-Blood has a sort of... enchantment. We don't get bad weather unless we want it. We don't get snow when we don't want it, or rain, or lightning. So the fact that it was raining in cascading sheets was a bit confusing.

Various demigods were running around in panic, and I had to look to see what the issue I was. Which is a perfect path to the second issue to being a demigod.

Everyone wants to kill you.

Today's flavor of the day was... Odd. Perplexing. Mysterious. An enigma, an... [Wait, Annabeth, I need ideas!] Imagine the most generic person ever. Average height, average size, average muscle and body shape. Physically the most normal person you've ever seen. The odd part, is that they were also devoid of light and detail. They were basically a rift in time and space, like they never existed. No skin, just black. Like he never existed, just made of darkness itself. They seemed to turn, and look for something, anything.

And as they turned, its 'eyes' landed on me.

"Perseus Jackson." It — no, definitely a he from that voice — said, in a dark, raspy voice. "Come forth, now."

I knew that if I didn't, he'd just kill to get what he wanted.

"Who are you?" I said, straightening the hair Annabeth had ruffled minutes prior.

The void-dude said nothing, before time and space warped around it. In less than a fraction of a second, he had just... glided over to me. I knew that despite no visible facial features, he was smirking. Or internally laughing. People do that around me a lot.

"Look, whoever you are, get lost. Camp Half-Blood is closed today." I called out, and I saw Annabeth step into place beside me.

Me and her. Together.

Voiddude stared at me harder, and pulled out a blade dark as... well, himself.

"Fight me, Jackson. Fight me." He said, before jumping towards me.

I pulled out Riptide, and uncapped it. All that stood between Camp Half-Blood's people and Voiddude was myself.

"Come and fight me." I replied back, sword meeting sword. He... He was good.

I tried to stab upwards, he blocked it with his blade. I tried to cut his 'legs', he dodged gently. Side hit, sword blocked.

I took one jab towards his stomach, and he twisted my blade within his, sent it tumbling into the air, leaving me weaponless.

The third problem with being a demigod?

You don't get to make mistakes.

He stabbed me in the middle of my stomach, and I saw him grab Riptide and toss it far away. The sword stung, like it was covered in lemon juice and salt.

"This! This is your beloved hero! Defeated, killed." Voiddude said, looking at the shocked crowd of demigods, as well as Chiron.

Voiddude pinned me into the ground with his blade — the sword basically skewering me to the ground, gods it hurt — and started walking towards Chiron.

"Do you know who I am, Chiron?" He asked, as a second black blade materialized. I couldn't focus on Chiron, however, as Annabeth was running to me.

"Percy, Percy, no..." She said, cradling me, bleeding out on the grass, no water nearby. "I-I can't lose you... N-Not now..." She said, and I felt her hug me.

"Annabeth..." I said weakly, rubbing my hand through her hair, when I felt something shift in my pocket.

The funny thing about Riptide? It comes back to my pocket.

"I will always love you." I said, before pulling the dark sword from my chest out, getting up weakly, and wielding Riptide in my right hand, the dark sword — the Blackblade — in my left.

I took two half steps towards Voiddude — and Chiron, who was trying to understand who the hell Voiddude was — when I slashed Riptide through Voiddude's chest. He dropped his own sword in shock, and it dissolved before hitting the ground.

"That one is for Camp Half-Blood." I said, coughing up blood. I knew it was over.

"And this one is for Annabeth, you son of a bitch." I said, driving the Blackblade through his chest, just like he had done to me. As he dissolved like his weapon — similar to most monsters, but it felt... off — I collapsed, holding Riptide.

Annabeth raced over to me, cradling me.

Her voice, murmuring sweet nothings to me, was the last thing I heard before the curtains went out. [I love you too...]

* * *

I know what you're thinking. I didn't really die, or I wouldn't be here.

Nope, dead. Completely, I saw my own funeral pyre and everything. For real, that time. Completely, 100% dead. Bought the farm, murdered, whatever word or phrase you want.

The gist is I'm dead.

Instead of dying, I woke up inside the world's largest hunting lodge.

It was a room that seemed to be twice as big as what any normal room should be, with at least an acre of hardwood floor covered with exotic animal skins: zebra, lion and some sort of reptile.

Against the right wall of the lobby, there was a hearth the size of a bedroom, burning seemingly endlessly. Over the mantel was the hanging stuffed head of a wolf, it's dark, beady eyes just kinda... glaring at me.

The ceiling supports were made from tree trunks, and the ceiling held itself was lined with spears for rafters.

In the middle of the foyer, there is an announcement board displaying the activities for the day, which I couldn't help but notice all had death at the start.

Polished shields just seemed to gleam on the walls and the entire place seemed to be illuminated from every direction, including from directions that I could very well see had no light source. [That couch should've had a shadow, you'd hate it, wise girl.]

Yay, more death. Since I was on a roll, that could work.

In the far corner of the room there was an overturned boat's keel, although it seemed whoever owned the place turned it into a coffee table for their papers. I walked over to the person there, the 'receptionist', I suppose. I noticed a nametag reading 'Helgi'.

"Uh... hello? Where am I?"

Helgi looked at me, pausing gently from the mountain of paperwork, and my eyes fell onto his huge beard — seriously, it deserved it's own postal code. [It's true, Annabeth, you should've seen!]

"I am alarmingly busy, but here is your keyring, go to the main hall. Warmest welcomes from the Hotel Valhalla." Helgi said, as if routine — didn't seem like a warmest welcome, being honest here — , before shooing me away. He was trying to manage a huge stack, and I couldn't help but notice it was gonna fall on him.

As he shooed me away, I saw two other people, who seemed to be conversing. One seemed to be the doorman(?) of the hotel(?), but I recognized the other one. He saw me out of the corner of his eyes, and turned to me with wide eyes.

Remember how I mentioned Annabeth has a cousin who died and saved the world, in that order?

"Percy?" Magnus asks, face going alarmingly pale.


	2. Chapter 2 - Magnus

[Give me the stupid mic, Perce. I know Valhalla better.]

[No, it's not even a question!]

[Annabeth, can you help me out and distract your boyfriend?]

[Annabeth! That's... Fine, just not in here.]

Hi, Magnus here.

So, where did Percy leave off?

Wait, no, hold on. I should get you up to speed.

So, when we defeated Loki, me and the rest of Floor Nineteen decided to lay low for a little. Life resumed to the Valhalla normal; now, the only deaths that were occurring were within hotel premises, and normally because of Spanish-to-the-death [Alex, I still blame you!]

Anyway, aside from that, everything was okay.

I was still trying to grapple with the feelings I had for Alex, and trying to understand where my courage and heroics came from during the events of my last memoir. [That... sounded kinda dramatic, actually. Hopefully the flourish gets transcribed. Rolling the... Anyway.]

So, where was I...

Ah, yes.

So, after a day in Boston with Alex and Blitz — the first of which was beside me, just kinda skulking in the corner tending to his knee, the second of which was back at his clothing shop, which had become a hit between mortals and gods alike — I was back in the Hotel, and I was handing a Kit Kat bar and a copy of _Doctor Strange_ to Hunding. (I should've mentioned, me and Hunding, we made a deal that he lets me sneak out of the Hotel with a blind eye, and when I suddenly return from nowhere, I give him chocolate or whatever cool thing I find him. Ever since I got him a DVD player, he's been watching movies in his little free time. Ironically, his favorite Avenger is Tony, not Thor. Who would've guessed?)

Anyway, just as I gave Hunding his movie and chocolate, I saw a familiar person out of the corner of my eye.

"Percy?" I asked, and I could feel my face going pale. "W-what are you doing here? Did Annabeth send you?"

Alex perked up from his corner. "We've met. You're Peter, right?"

"Percy." He said, glaring at Alex. "You know this perfectly well."

"Oh, yeah, I do." Alex said, smirking. "So, answer the question. Why are you at Hotel Valhalla?" Alex asks, looking at Percy.

"Renting a room for the night, of course." Percy said sarcastically. "But, uh, no... Apparently, I'm... I died?"

That...

Was not good. Annabeth was gonna be devastated.

"C'mon." I said, while Hunding moved aside uttering his respects. "I've got a LOT to show you."

* * *

Hotel Valhalla. Five hundred forty floors, five hundred forty doors. And like, three times that many things to explain to Percy.

First, I explained what the job of an einharjar was — train for Ragnarok. The look on his face was miserable, until he found out he didn't need to save the world — didn't have the heart to tell him why, although I did tell him what would start Ragnarok.

[Alex, don't you fucking dar- Why?]

Second, I explained the activities. There was swordfighting, shield practice, spear throwing, flamethrowing, and Scrabble, all to the death. ("Yes, Percy, Scrabble to the death.")

Third, I explained just the whole Norse chain to him. I think I did a good job, since half of it confused me still. Alex didn't help when he pointed out he was the brother of a goddess of death, a horse, a sea serpent, and the wolf that nearly killed me. Percy looked like his brain was gonna implode.

Fourth, and finally, I showed him his new room. Turns out, he lives on Floor Nineteen as well.

By the time we were done, we got interrupted.

By 'interrupted', I mean 'somebody threw an axe at the newbie'.

Ah, well, dinner was only an hour away.

* * *

"You. Are. Awful." Percy said, walking up to me. "I mean, yeah, you didn't hit me. But can't you heal people?"

"Yeah, he totally can. But that wouldn't be as funny." Alex said, her grin wide.

I smirked, patting a seat for Percy next to me. "So, don't be surprised, but basically, there's gonna be a video of the heroic deed you did."

Percy paled.

"Deed? Or deeds, with an S?" He asked, concerned.

"A few times it's been more than one, but it'll show mostly your death, and anything more heroic than that. A few people have had two, even three videos. Why?"

He paled considerably. "I... I'm not hungry." He said, pushing his plate aside. As he did, the Thanes seemed to stop conversing.

"Ahh, those are the Thanes." I told him. "Erik, Erik, and Erikson; Snorri, Gunilla; Lord Nelson, Davy Crockett, and finally Helgi — the hotel manager." I said, pointing at each of them.

He seemed not to hear, lost in thought all alone, but he seemed to snap out of his silence stupor when Helgi banged his goblet down, alerting the hall.

"Warriors!" Helgi said, and Percy was twiddling his ballpoint pen that I knew all too well Jack was infatuated with. "Unfortunately, we have lost a Valkyrie today. It is a shame, but one of our best Valkyrie's, Samirah al-Abbas, has gone missing, after bringing in a new hero."

Alex dropped her food, and I couldn't help but stare. _Sam? Missing?_

"However, we have sent out a search for Ms. al-Abbas, and in the meantime, a new fallen joins us today! Today, we will witness his heroic acts!"

Percy paled.

"Percy Jackson!"

* * *

"Holy. Fucking. Shit." Alex said, her eyes mesmerized to the screen. I... couldn't blame her.

Imagine your reaction to seeing him slay a beast of abnormal and astronomical strength seven years prior.

The Valkyrie Vision screen was flickering back and forth, as if showing us all Percy's greatest deeds in the order they happened, along with weird little annotations explaining what everything was — an addition that got added shortly after the battle against Loki.

Gunilla had long since abandoned trying to wrangle control of the screen. Someone was screwing with it, and couldn't turn it off. The Norns must have REALLY wanted this to be seen.

First, we saw his sacrifice to kill the weird shadow dude. Then we saw him slaying monsters to save others.

The Furies. Luke Castellen's sacrifice, the dip in the Styx.

_His willingness to sacrifice himself._

It had been... I glanced at the wall. Seven and a half hours. And at this point, it was getting outlandish.

No wonder Annabeth likes him. I thought. Time and time again, he laid his life down for others. When he told me his feats back when Loki escaped, he said, 'I almost died a few times, but in the end, everyone was fine, luckily.'

I saw a floor cave in, and Percy jump after Annabeth into a pit, with the caption _'The pit of Tartarus, a void of nightmare and agonies, where every monster and Titan from the Greek and Roman mythos lie dormant.'_

With that, the reel burned away, finished.

Percy's life story had the audience captivated it seemed, and everyone in the room was silent.

"There goes Mallory's survival streak." Alex muttered, breaking the silence, and earning a punch from Mallory.

The thanes were silent for a long moment more, before finally conversing among themselves.

"Well, you clearly know your father." Helgi said, "But tradition forces me to ask regardless. Did you know your father?"

Percy slightly nodded. "Poseidon, Greek god of the sea."

"We will seek wisdom from the runes, unless the All-Father would intercede?"

He glanced at the throne, which remained empty. The ravens studied me, as if trying to figure out how long before I died for good. Or maybe they were looking at Percy.

"Very well," Helgi said. "Bring forth–"

Between the roots of the tree, where the waterfall hit the dark lake, a massive bubble erupted. BLOOP! On the surface of the water stood three women shrouded in white.

Except for the crackle of cooking fire and the sound of the waterfall, the hall was silent. Thousands of warriors watched, frozen in amazement, as the three white women glided across the floor, heading towards Percy.

"Goddamn it." Percy said. "The Fates."

I knew he wasn't wrong, as they glided towards Percy.

_Jackson. It appears your string has finally been cut._

The voice resonated everywhere, but Percy merely looked pissed off.

"Yeah, no thanks to you. You have thrown me under, in front of, and on top of the bus every day!" He said, almost yelling. The hall was silent, and I saw Alex mouth the words 'Does he have a death wish?'

"You knew this would happen, didn't you! The Titan War, the Giant War! Me dying and coming to this place!" Percy was livid.

"I have waited SO long, to finally be in control and able to tell you what I think! And fuck you, fuck your prophecies, fuck these strings, and fuck the pantheons and every god in them!" Percy said, before finally sitting down, crossing his arms.

The hall stayed silent. Many people looked at Percy, with an insane look in their eyes. Even I questioned how he thought he'd get away with this. There are things worse than death.

Silence.

Ten seconds.

Twenty seconds.

A minute.

_A very fair complaint._ The Norns said, and everyone looked like something broke.

_We apologize greatly, Mr. Jackson. But, in the end, there are forces greater than ourselves._

"LIKE?" He screamed, daring to even punch the Norn on the right.

_Chaos. The epitome of disaster and ruin. He is awake, and fighting. It leaves us with one final prophecy for you, Mr. Jackson._

Percy groaned.

"I want your promise. That after this is done, and this prophecy is done, no more prophecies. You bring back to life, back to Annabeth and my family, and I never have to worry about getting killed for being a demigod again. I want to die, in my sleep, when I'm old and gray. Do we have a deal?"

_Of course. It is the least we can do._ _We swear on the River Styx._ The Norns said instantly.

At this point, the hall was short circuiting. No one had EVER been brought back to life.

I couldn't help but dare pipe up. "Am I in this prophecy?"

_Yes. You, Jackson, and Fierro._ (Alex's eyes went wide.)

"A-and could we come back to life?" Alex asked, and I couldn't help but wonder. Could I? Could I have a happy story, no Ragnarok?

_You would give up your immortality? Your near-endless power, your place in the fight of eternity? For a human lifetime, for a chance at a normal life?_

"Yes." Alex said, and I nodded as well.

_Very well. When the prophecy is complete, it shall be done. However, on that matter..._

Percy smiled, and braced himself. I did too, and I saw Alex grip her garrote. The Norns started reciting a prophecy.

_In ropes of time, a shadow stares_  
_To end his wrath, must kill the heirs_  
_Binded thus, in bringing strife_  
_To bring the nightmare back to life_  
_Imitations, never formed_  
_The mist dissolves, the world transformed_  
_To control the end, to ensure you won_  
_You have to the trust the silver tongue_  
_Discordant split, in seven ways_  
_To prevent the start of end of days_  
_Control be stripped from children's form_  
_Of peace and death and mind and storm_  
_The game will stop where it began_  
_To return full breath and full lifespan_  
_For they were wrongly chosen, and wrongly slain_  
_Thirteen heroes Chaos will never contain_

The hall was silent, trying to understand what they heard.

Lovely.

Another life ending prophecy.


End file.
